Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 337: Three Generations of Father and Son Join the Army
In the open space next to the German engineers, more than a hundred Han soldiers were either on guard with guns or lending a hand. According to the Germans' requirements, a surveying pole was set up every few dozen meters.

The company responsible for protecting the German engineers was a company drawn from the Han Field Army, and the company commander was Lu Rongting, who had just been promoted to captain.

After arranging the tasks for his soldiers, Lu Rongting chatted with the officials in charge of accompanying the engineers. Then he found an opportunity to sit alone under a camphor tree, took out a thick notebook, and began to organize the company's battle records.

War records are used to record the combat and training situations of a unit, as a basis for counting the combat achievements of soldiers and officers, and are also first-hand real cases for summarizing and reflecting on the lessons learned and improvements of each battle.

Each company and battalion-level unit of the National Defense Force has its own combat records. Usually, the company and battalion commanders compile and organize the combat records and soldier reward and punishment data, and then submit them to the division-level command of the combat unit to which they belong. The division-level command then reviews and determines the authenticity of the rewards and punishments. Finally, the division headquarters reports the list of meritorious soldiers in the entire division to the General Staff. At the same time, the division headquarters will screen out combat events that are of educational and reflective significance and organize them into the division's war history records, which will be preserved as part of the combat history of the division-level military unit.

He opened the war record book and carefully read the list of meritorious soldiers page by page. When he turned to the fifth page, Lu Rongting was so curious that he couldn't help but stay for a few more minutes on the introduction of a deputy platoon-level officer.

"Yan Zhengping, 31 years old, deputy platoon leader of the 1879nd Company, 10th Battalion, 28st Regiment, rd Division, rank of second lieutenant. During the Argentine War, he killed and wounded three Argentine soldiers, killed one white British soldier, captured four Indian native soldiers, and was wounded once. He was awarded two second-class merits and one first-class merit. On October , , he was approved by the division headquarters and promoted to the rank of second lieutenant."

Yan Zhengping's military achievements were above average in the company, but this was not the reason why Lu Rongting paid special attention to him. What really aroused his interest was the introduction to Yan Zhengping's family situation.

"Yan Zhengping was born into a family of Chinese immigrants from southern Fujian. In 1873, he moved to South America with his father and brother. There were 4 brothers in his family and 13 sons, daughters, and nephews. A total of 9 people, including his father, brothers, brothers, sons, and nephews, joined the army. His father was 47 years old and joined the army at an early age. He retired in 1877 with the rank of lieutenant deputy company commander. At the end of 1878, he was re-enlisted and served as the deputy battalion commander of the garrison army with the rank of temporary captain. After the Argentine War, he was promoted to a major and a battalion-level officer and transferred to the militia reserve service.

The eldest son, Yan Su'an, was 16 years old and a soldier in the 1879th Company, rd Battalion, st Regiment, th Division of the Field Army. He joined the army in early . During the war, he captured an Argentine soldier and was awarded a second-class merit. His military rank was private first class. …………”

It was the first time that Lu Rongting had seen three generations of people, including father, brothers, and nephews, join the army at the same time. However, after reading the introduction of Yan Zhengping's family situation, he still felt a little curious, but not as strong as at the beginning.

Yan Zhengping's father got married at the age of fourteen and gave birth to his eldest son the following year. Before immigrating to South America, Yan's father, who was in his early forties, had a total of five sons and three daughters. However, one son and two daughters died one after another due to famine, disease and other reasons. After arriving in South America, the remaining four sons and one daughter and grandchildren had enough food to eat, and then they grew into a large family of more than twenty people, including daughters-in-law, sons, daughters, daughters-in-law, grandchildren and granddaughters.

Marry early, have many children and grandchildren. The lower class people have nothing, and they have to feed their children with coarse grains. As long as they can live to the age of eleven or twelve, they are considered to have added a labor force to the family. They can increase the family's food ration by working in the fields, and can also be used to continue the incense and pass on the family business.

Although the lower-class Chinese who immigrated to South America no longer had to go hungry every day like before, the idea and custom of having more children was still firmly passed down due to the government's deliberate propaganda and the influence of family concepts.

For ordinary Chinese families, unless there are special circumstances, they have at least three children. For each additional child, the government will provide an additional five acres of good arable land or thirty to one hundred acres of pasture and forest land. If there are fewer than three children within seven years of marriage, officials will first come to urge the family to change their mind. If the family does not change their mind, part of the land will be taken back as a punishment.

Having more children has many benefits. Having fewer children will not only mean you get less land than other families, but you will also lag behind other families in the competition for the next generation. Therefore, in South America, there will be more cases like Yan Zhengping, who has many brothers, nephews and nieces, and where three generations join the army at the same time. By that time, people will have seen more and may not be so curious about similar phenomena.

After staying under the tree for about half an hour, Lu Rongting put away the war record book and was about to get up when he saw Wang Shizhen walking towards him. Wang Shizhen was younger than Lu Rongting. After the war, he was promoted to lieutenant deputy company commander and stayed in the same company as Lu Rongting. He was usually responsible for assisting Lu Rongting in handling company affairs.

"Captain, it will take the Germans about ten minutes to complete the surveying work. Lord Zhou asked me to inform you to arrange for the troops to gather in advance." "Okay, let the first and second platoons on guard duty withdraw, and the third platoon will help the Germans collect the surveying equipment. Tell the brothers in the third platoon to be careful and not to leave any loose items behind."

"Yes, Captain. I'll send someone down right away."

After arranging the task, Lu Rongting saw that the other party was still standing there and asked, "Is there anything else?"

"Captain, the result of my last application has come out. The division headquarters has issued an order for me to pack up my things and report to Chang'an City within half a month. Then I will board the transport ship of the Ocean Shipping Company and leave with 60 junior officers who will serve as military instructors in Songkhla."

"Have you thought it through?"

"Before submitting my application to be transferred to the Nanyang Corps, I had considered it for a month. The Argentine War ended, and the mainland army was downsized and reorganized. Even if I stayed in the mainland, there had been no war in recent years. The situation in Nanyang was more complicated than in the mainland. Once there, I might fight with the indigenous armed forces at any time. Although the conditions in Nanyang were a bit harsh, there were more opportunities for fighting, so I wanted to serve there for a while, and by the way, find an opportunity to ask someone to bring my mother and aunt back from the mainland."

"After His Royal Highness the King of Han ascends the throne, the Qing court will certainly be more wary of the Han Kingdom. You are enlisting in the army in South America, leaving your two aunts behind on the mainland. If the news leaks out and the Qing court spies find out something, your two aunts will be in danger."

Lu Rongting nodded in understanding and said, "The Military Intelligence Department has set up a branch in the Nanyang region. The work of receiving the families of local officers and soldiers left in the region has always been the responsibility of the Intelligence Department. When you arrive in Nanyang, you can go to find Lord Mei first and explain your situation to Lord Mei. Lord Mei will help you contact the person in charge of the Military Intelligence Department on the mainland, and the Military Intelligence Department will come forward to take the two aunts out of the mainland."

"Thank you, Brother Lu, for reminding me. It would be much easier to bring my mother and aunt out from the mainland if the Intelligence Department came forward directly."

Visiting and searching for family members of officials stranded in mainland China is one of the main tasks of the Military Intelligence Department. However, because the Military Intelligence Department operates in a secretive manner, not many people know the details.

It was only when Lu Rongting was looking through the company's early combat records that he discovered brief information about the Intelligence Department's visits to find the families of soldiers who died during the 1868 uprising. Only then did he gain a partial understanding of the Military Intelligence Department's intelligence work in Southeast Asia.

The Military Intelligence Department's search for relatives of officers and soldiers left behind in the mainland is semi-public information. Generally, only officers at the battalion level and above and some officers and soldiers whose families are in the mainland know about it. Ordinary grassroots officers and soldiers are not particularly concerned and it is difficult for them to obtain relevant information.

The action of visiting the relatives of officers and soldiers stranded on the mainland originated from a promise made by Li Mingyuan during the Chinese Workers' Uprising in Peru in 1868. At that time, the Chinese workers were in a difficult situation, and ordinary Chinese workers had no confidence in the success of the uprising. In order to stabilize the morale of the army and solve the worries of the Chinese workers, Li Mingyuan solemnly promised to give each Chinese worker who participated in the uprising 300 to 1000 acres of land. Even if the Chinese workers who participated in the uprising unfortunately died in the middle of the battle, Li Mingyuan would personally hand over the land belonging to them to their living relatives.

After the Chinese workers migrated thousands of miles and settled down in two southern states of Brazil, in order to fulfill his promise to the Chinese workers who had revolted, Li Mingyuan sent more than ten groups of people to the mainland. On the one hand, they searched for the families left behind in various parts of the mainland based on the family address information left by the fallen Chinese workers in the uprising. On the other hand, they established an intelligence network in the mainland to lay the foundation for subsequent immigration and intelligence gathering.

Eleven years passed. Except for a small number of those who died due to unknown addresses or natural disasters or man-made calamities, most of the families of the Chinese workers who died and revolted were brought to live in South America. Li Mingyuan fulfilled the promise he had made, and the action of searching for relatives of officers and soldiers stranded in the mainland became a fixed task of the Intelligence Department.

(End of this chapter)